"Things are not great, but they could have been extremely bad," he said.

China's economy, which has been growing rapidly over the past 30 years, has slowed its pace as a result of the global crisis.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn admitted that the global crisis "is far from over."

Global consensus

In a recent address to a conference at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, Strauss-Kahn warned that the "forces pushing down economic conditions are stronger than those pushing in the other direction."

As a result, 2009 will be a "horrible year," he said.

In the face of the deteriorating economic situation, many have already realized that in a world which is so closely interdependent, no single country is able to reverse the downward trend without coordinating efforts with others.

The ministers of the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four International Monetary Affairs and Development (G24) seem to know the "secret."

In a statement issued on Friday, ministers attending the 81st meeting of the G24 noted that the global crisis requires "global solutions with the participation of all countries."

The ministers stressed that the global financial and economic crisis that originated in mature markets "was continuing to have a disproportionate effect on developing countries through various channels, including falling prices of primary commodities, sharply contracting exports, declining remittances, negative net private capital flows, and a credit crunch affecting many countries."

The ministers welcomed the commitment made at the G20 meeting to implement the needed measures to stimulate demand and restore confidence in the financial system, and to address the deep-seated weaknesses in the regulation of national and international financial markets. They also called for concerted and swift implementation of these commitments.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner echoed the view, saying that countries need to "pull together to lay the groundwork for a new, more stable and more sustainable pattern of growth in the future."

Geithner told the Economic Club in Washington: "All nations may not be in the same boat, but they're facing the same storm."

And the World Bank and the IMF will undoubtedly be the focus of attention this weekend as professionals put their heads together to look for the best way out of the world economic dilemma.

Many people, in the meantime, are pleased to know that the World Bank and the IMF are trying to take steps to reverse the current economic tide.

The World Bank will increase its infrastructure investment to US$45 billion over the next three years to provide the foundation for rapid recovery, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Thursday.

"Investments in infrastructure can provide the platform for job creation, sustainable economic growth, overcome poverty, and help jump- start a recovery from the crisis," Zoellick said.